Chapter 19, "The Bent Backs of Chang 'Dong" Summary

Emma Atkins is as straightforward as her husband. She notices that all the old people of the village walk stooped over so she asks why. The villagers tell her that that's the way it is. In searching for an answer, Emma notices that the villagers make their own brooms using coconut palm fronds as bristles attached to reeds with two-foot stalks as handles. These makeshift brooms require bending over to sweep. Emma proposes making a longer handle to sweep without hunching over, but wood is scarce, so Emma searches for months for an alternative material to make longer broom handles. Along the side of the road forty miles from the village, Emma finds a reed with a five-foot stalk, a longer reed than the kind the villagers use. Emma...